1. Field of the Invention
The invention is concerned with an improvement in a lift truck and more particularly with an improvement in the exhaust system therefor. Lift trucks typically include an engine housing with an engine within it, an operator seat usually more or less atop of the housing and an overhead structure above the seat defining an operators compartment, the structure serving to protect the operator from falling objects along with a plurality of forks controllably moveable vertically about a front end of the truck.
2. Prior Art
Lift trucks, often called fork lifts are well known to the prior art and generally include an engine housing with an engine therewithin, moveable load engaging means such as forks adjacent a forward end of the truck, an overhead structure defining an operators compartment to protect the operator from falling objects and an exhaust stack usually located in the vicinity of the floor upon which the truck normally drives. Such lift trucks have suffered from the problem of relatively hot and contaminated exhaust gases being expelled adjacent floor level whereby the operator of the lift truck and others working in the area have been exposed to such gases. The cooling of the engines of lift trucks has also created some problems and since these lift trucks tend to operate under relatively heavy load conditions as when moving generally many hundreds of pounds of material, equipment or the like from one place to another, heating problems of the engine of a lift truck are especially serious.
It would be highly desirable to provide a lift truck wherein the exhaust gases therefrom were significantly cooled prior to injection into the surrounding atmosphere. It would be even more advantageous if such an exhaust gas cooling system would also serve to help to draw cool air into the engine housing of a lift truck whereby the engine would be at least partially cooled by said cool air. It would still be further advantageous if such an improved exhaust system would be operable without any physical connection between the exhaust stack of the lift truck and the conduit accepting air from the engine whereby long life would result for the system due to its having no touching parts. It would be still more advantageous if the exhaust gases from the exhaust stack of a lift truck were to be expelled well above the heads of nearby workers as well as above the head of the operator of the lift truck to minimize health hazards. Still more advantageous would be the provision of such a system wherein the exhaust stack which caused the exhaust gasses to be expelled well above the heads of workers in the area of the lift truck would also serve as a support member for the overhead guard of a lift truck whereby through this double use of the exhaust stack savings in material and hence in cost would result. The present invention is concerned with an improved exhaust system which in its various embodiments accomplishes the above desired results.